Pubs (Planning Policy)

Debate between John Leech and Greg Mulholland

Wednesday 16th February 2011 Westminster Hall

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

I am pleased to have secured this important debate and to see once again some of my pub supporting and friendly colleagues, who come from both sides of the House. It is important to remember that the matter affects each and every one of us as constituency MPs. We are all doing our best to preserve and support the great British pub, a wonderful institution that is of considerable importance to our communities.

I am delighted once again to have the opportunity to be debating the subject with my hon. Friend the Minister, who is responsible for community pubs in his role at the Department for Communities and Local Government. I hope that, like me, he sees the debate as being part of a conversation between us and the all-party save the pub group, one that will continue during this Parliament. That conversation may sometimes happen here in Westminster Hall and sometimes in parliamentary or ministerial offices, but due to our genuine interest I hope that it will continue sometimes to happen in the pub.

We had a well-attended debate a few weeks ago, in which we heard that the British pub faces many problems. There is the problem of the pub codes of practice and their distortion of the beer tie; there is the problem of the supermarket ban, with unreasonably low prices and below-cost selling; and there is a problem with various aspects of regulation. All those factors cause real concern.

What is sometimes lost in our debates, perhaps deliberately so, is the one thing could save the British pub, almost at the stroke of a pen but certainly at the stroke of the parliamentary printing press as many of these problems are covered by secondary legislation, and that is to strengthen planning law to recognise the importance that pubs play in our communities. At the moment, that is not happening.

We are all aware of what successive Governments have done, and I make no criticism here. I pay tribute to the Minister’s predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth and Dearne (John Healey), who also took a genuine interest in the subject. It is easy to say positive things about the importance of the pub, but until that is recognised in a meaningful way within the planning system, many of our efforts in trying to protect and save our local pubs will be wasted.

At the moment, we have the extraordinary situation that a free-standing pub—one that is clearly not connected to another building—that is not listed or in a conservation area and that has no other protection under planning law, can be demolished overnight. That can be done without planning permission, never mind consulting the community, something that my hon. Friend the Member for Selby and Ainsty (Nigel Adams) highlighted in his Protection of Local Services (Planning) Bill, a private Member’s Bill that was supported by the all–party group. I shall speak a little more about that later, and I am sure that my hon. Friend will want to contribute to the debate.

Similarly, it is perfectly legal under the planning system, overnight and without any consultation with the community, to turn the local pub into a Tesco, a betting shop, a restaurant or a café—businesses that do not have the same community function and that are not a community hub in the same way that a pub is.

[Mr John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that large supermarket chains are using pub buildings as a way of getting around the regulations that require them to have permission for an additional store. Often the pubs are quite large, bigger than something that a supermarket would otherwise require permission for.

[Greg Mulholland]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I call it predatory purchasing. The supermarkets deliberately target pubs because they are a soft touch. The Government have said that they want to be a pro-pub Government, and I am proud of that, but they also want to be a decentralising Government who believe in localism. As part of that, they will have to show that such things are not acceptable without the community being consulted. That is happening because the planning system is weak, and Tesco and the other supermarkets know that and exploit it.

The scandal goes on. Pubs are being closed every week that are not only viable in terms of making a profit, but are successful and profitable at the time of closure. Those closures often happen against the wishes of the small businessmen and women who run the pub and making a living from it. That is a scandal, and it must be stopped.

Public Forest Estate (England)

Debate between John Leech and Greg Mulholland

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Leech]

Guaranteeing the future of the woodland is important, but so, too, is the guardianship of that land in the meantime. There is a real fear that the trend to improve the forests will fade over time. What assurances can the Minister give that the woodland will not just be maintained as it is and that the new owners will be compelled to improve both access and the natural habitat? The public estate enjoys 40 million visits a year, a quarter of it is dedicated as a site of special scientific interest and it hosts a wealth of biodiversity. None of those things should be under threat, and they must flourish under this coalition Government.

One of the big unanswered questions is whether or not the private ownership or leasing of forest land will make the savings that the Government anticipate. I am not convinced that these proposals will save any money; they may end up leaving the Government with a bigger bill to maintain the forests, because the sale or lease of commercially attractive forests will mean that their revenue is no longer available to subsidise the running of heritage and other loss-making forests. That was the only sensible point made by the shadow Secretary of State.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that Ministers simply have not allayed the very real fears in this country and that we need assurances from them that the consultation process is genuine and that decisions have not already been taken?

[Mr Leech]

I do. One problem is the fact that the Opposition have tabled the motion at this stage rather than allowing the consultation to take place so that people can have their say and a proper, sensible decision can be made following the consultation.

I do not think we should be too precious about the model of ownership of our forests. The previous Government could not be trusted to safeguard the future of the public forests that have been sold off in the past 13 years. It is certainly not the case that the forests would be safer in Labour hands. Many might argue that the future of the forests would be more certain if they were run and managed by organisations such as the Woodland Trust or the National Trust. It is not the model of ownership that we should be precious about but the people, including the staff, and the organisations that might run the forests.

In my constituency, after the previous Labour Government closed my local hospital, Withington hospital, Paupers wood on that site was put up for sale. Like many others, I expressed grave concerns about what that might mean for the future of that relatively small piece of woodland. However, the sale of that land to one of my constituents, Mary, resulted in enormous benefit for the community. That area of woodland, which had not been maintained for years and had been inaccessible to local people, is now available for local community groups to enjoy and for schools to use for outdoor classrooms. The woodland is well managed and is now sustainable for the future. That would not have happened without that sale. It is not simply a case of public ownership being good and private ownership being bad. This debate should be about what is best for individual woodlands and communities and about securing the future of our forests for generations to come.